VnB FAQ

A: Yes, this is legal. A unit does not have to align, it only has to connect with the front edge (or one of the front corners).

A. Not exactly correct. A unit must be in march order to cross a bridge without movement penalty. If not in march order they pay half their movement just as if crossing a ford. If they move into melee contact they are disordered, just as if crossing a stream or ford.

A. That should read "regimental stand meleed from flank" It refers to Ancient Regime armies mounted on regimental stands. Infantry Brigades in the ACW are also -1, not a -2 as indicated on the ACW quick reference sheet.

A. If we do a second edition to the rules (as I'm certain we will some day) I am really going to have to put in a section on what a strength point lost really is, as this is a fairly common comment. I've said this before, but new people are always coming on to the list, so it bears repeating. When evaluating a unit's strength, it receives one strength point for every 500 men present. However, each game lost point is assumed to be actually a loss of 250 men, not 500, and the unit is assumed to lose the ability to function completely once it is reduced by casualties to half strength (i.e. all of its points are gone). So a 4 point unit (2,000 men) which is reduced to it "last strength point" still has 1,250 men on the firing line.

A. It routs off of the road at normal speed, and is no longer considered to be in road column. This would also be true of a unit in road column which lost a melee and was forced back but not routed.

A. No it isn't and if the example says that then it is in error. Once a unit becomes disordered it loses its stationary status.

Q. A unit must be in command to be declared "Stationary". I had then assumed that the commander, having organised the troops for defence, can move away, and the troops remain "Stationary" until they move, but others out there seem to think that this is not the case.

A. You are correct. A unit must be in command to become stationary; it does not have to be in command to remain stationary.

A. My intent with the melee rule was that "a melee combat" is always fought between a single unit and one or more enemy units. I expected that the single unit would always be the defender, but I now see that in certain circumstances it may be necessary for one attacker to attack two defenders. In this case that is a single melee combat and the dice from both defender are combined. The important considerations here are:

Let's imagine that a stand (stand 3) charges (enters in melee) two enemy stands (because stands 1 and 2 are in base contact togteher), giving the following schema :

3333
3333
11112222
11112222

Stand 3 is supposed to touch fronts of 1 and 2. The attacker chooses to attack only stand 1 and not stand 2. Stand 3 does not have to touch both stands. It can change facing at the start of it's move and move so it only contacts stand 2. This is advisable.

It is adviseable because the attacker may not choose to only attack one stand or the other. All stands which the attacker touches must be attacked. I know that this is not precisely spelled out in the rules, but that is the intent.

Q. With respect to the new rules and moving in/through towns. The new rule says a unit can only suffer 1 disorder/turn no matter how many towns it moves through. I assume this means that a unit disordered by moving through a town no longer loses a strength point to stragglers when exiting the town or entering other towns, duing that turn. But if a unit is already disordered it will still lose a strength point (but only one) when it first enters/leaves a town during any turn.

Q. Can I conclude that roads or movement in road column do not negate the penalties for moving up and down hills?

Q. What happens when a unit rout's and comes to an unfordable river? If it were a stream or wood the new rules say you take a casualty and move through, at reduced rates (?). But what happens at unfordable rivers?

Q. If crossing a river at a bridge and you are in column of march you don't pay a movement penalty. Can you only cross an unfordable river at a bridge in column of march?

A. Artillery pays no movement penalty. Infantry and cavalry pay no movement penalty but are disordered.

Q. In the quick reference chart with the scenario book "Napoleon Returns", no mention is made of saving throws being lost when under fire from heavy guns. Was this an oversight, or is there a rule change?

A. An oversight. Units in town or under counterbattery fire still lose their saving throws versus heavy guns.

Q. In the morale modifiers list, we have : 'Army commander attached to unit +1'. Let's imagine the following pattern (each B = Brigade stand, C = Army commander). In the following diagram which Brigades is he attached to?

|B1|B2|B3|B4|C|

A. Only B4 is attached to the army commander. Only one unit may be attached and the army commander must be touching it.

Q. In the following example (G = Brigade with battalion gun, B = Brig. without bataillon gun, only muskets). Does B has to test morale (he is in close range of G's bat. gun) ?

|B| <3" distance> |G|

A. No. No unit ever tests morale just because of close range to battalion guns. (Reread the battalion gun rule.)

Q. In the example above does G have 1 dice to shoot his battalion guns (or does he gets all his dice or does he get none ?)

Q. If a unit moves within close range distance of an enemy unit, but is not within the enemy arc of fire must it check for morale?

A. One must reason that the fire from the guns are causing the units to check morale so, no. If you can't hit it, it doesn't have to make a morale check for short range arty or advanced firearms. Now if you contact an enemy unit, then yes you must check morale check no matter what face of the unit you contact. Remember that if you hit a unit in the flank not only does it suffer a negative morale modifier, but you get a positive one. Also remember that an arty unit contacted in the flank or rear receives zero combat dice.

A. Yes, they may pivot in place for free. Greg Novak makes the following suggestion however. - This should be limited to Napoleonic era artillery and later Early 1700 artillery should not be allowed to move once it unlimbers - Seven Years Artillery should be treated as Poorly Trained Artillery, and not allowed the free facing with the exception of Horse Artillery. Napoleonic Artillery and later should be allowed the free facing - after all in a one hour turn the guns should be able to turn and meet the threat - of course pivoting to face one flank may leave the other open!

Q. Casaulties to artillery don't count to exhaustion level either before the game or during. However do they count when calculating hits taken for a morale callapse, either during the turn of a collapse or in subsequent turns?

Q. In the following diagram A & B have charged X; (note the slight overlap onto Y). Can A & B melee with X and not melee with (ignore) Y this turn?

XXXXXYYYYY

AAAAABBBBB

A. If B is in contact with Y, it must melee it - so this melee must be viewed as two seperate melee's

Q. In the eample in 30 above, if X loses the melee and so must retire, can A or B occupy the *exact* space left by X?

Q. Again refer to the diagram in 30. If X loses the melee and so must retire, the next turn will start with Y in contact with B. Can Y now move away if it wants too? This is important - you don't normally start a turn in contact with the enemy!

Q. With reference to the following diagram. "A" & "B" are both facing "X"."X" has charged "A". It defeats it and occupies its space. The left of "X" is now in contact with the left of "B". On the next turn, can "B" simply change facing and engage in melee in contact with "X"? If "B" were intially stationary - is it still stationary?

XXXXXX

AAAAAABBBBB

A. If "X" wins - it can occupy "A"'s place and change facing but may not enter into melee with "B" - ie end the turn touching "B". "B can turn in place and keep it's stationary status - and fire into "X", or may charge into "B".

Q. With respect to cavalry saving throws do cavalry withdraw 12" when shot at (i.e. as soon as the defending cav player states "I will roll to save and withdraw when you shoot at me"), or when actually *hit* (after they make their saving throw)?

A. They withdraw as soon as they maike the decision to attempt a saving throw, and withdraw whether or not the roll is successful.

Q. On p14 in the para headed "Cavalry Saving Throws", the 4th sentence seems to imply the saving throw must actually be used, but the fifth sentence merely mentions enemy firing (not necessarily hitting). I would have thought that the actual process in operation here is that the cav see the incoming and move out of the way *in case* they get hit, or to throw off the enemy aim, rather than say "that was nearly a hit, let's move now."

A. Close. What actually happens is that as soon as cavalry starts taking casualties they rapidly displace. It's very easy to pound infantry with artillery; cavalry usually only gets pounded when it allows itself to.

Q. A unit of poorly trained regulars do not recieve a free facing change - thats fine. But can said unit move obliquely?

Q. Two regiments are in line. An opposing regiment contacts one, lining up exactly with its front edge.They are in contact, but only at the corner, can the second unit assist in the melee? (The question assumes a close range of zero inches.)

Q. If a disordered unit moves through an ordered unit the ordered unit becomes disordered (page 7), but if the ordered unit moves through the disordered unit does the ordered unit still become disordered?

A. Disordered units only disorder other units if they are *forced* to move through them due to a retreat or route. Normal movement through another unit does not disorder either one, regardless of whether they are already disordered or not.

A. Arty says, "I am going to fire at your cavalry.". Cav Says, "Okay, I'm waiting.". Arty says, "I rolled a 6. That's a hit, i'nit?" Cav says, "Okay, I guess I'll fall back and take my saving throw." Cav moves back and then rolls the die.

Q. Do militia take casualties when entering disordering terrain? I would think that less trained troops would actually seek out cover because they weren't up to standing "toe to toe" with more disciplined units.

A. Yes. They will indeed seek out cover, many of them with such entusiasm that you will never see them again.

Q. You hinted at a rule for fortified farms and chateaux just before the 1815 book but this never materialised. Could you say what those rules would have been? And/or why they were discarded?

A. They're in there, but they just aren't very obtrusive and they aren't specifically identified. The rule is the revision to the town/village rules which allows skirmishers to win a melee while defending these positions and hold their ground against formed troops. The "fortified farmstead" part of it is simply showing such farmsteads as villages on the playing table (a town block in the case of really extensive chateaux such as Hougoumont and , and thus making them positions which skirmishers can hold in the face of formed troops.

Q. When a unit routs it takes a casualty. Does this casualty count when calculating a morale collapse?

A. No, Do not keep track of it for the purposes of morale collapse calculation, this is because it is one of the most commonly forgotten rules and is difficult to track. It does count towards division exhaustion however.

Q. When is Division Exhaustion and Morale collapse checked for? At the end of each "player turn", or the end of each "game turn". A game turn being made up of a pair of player turns.

Q. Does recovery from disorder, counts as movement, and therefore prevent a stand from doing a facing change and contacting an enemy? The point being that if you are going to end in close combat you must do the facing change at the beginning of movement.

A. Recovering from disorder is movement and it isn't. It certainly keeps you from becoming stationary. However I did not intend it to keep you from making a free facing change and then charging.

Q. With reference to the diagram on page 11 of the main rules covering flank attacks. If a unit contacts an completely behind the front base edge of its target in melee combat, but is not at less than a 45 degree to the enemy base it doesn't count as a flank. I'm basing this on the "and" in the flank attack definition. If you like move the attacking base in the diagram on this page to the right while maintaining the original angle of contact.Correct?

A. Yes - you have to be more than half your base behind the enemy front *and* at less than 45deg from his side. Otherwise a unit could get a flank attack on any unit to its front provided it was slightly offset to a side. Another way to look at the flanking rule is that you have to start your move outside the forward 45 degree arc of a unit in order to get a flank attack.

Q. In what order are morale checks completed? And can one morale result effect another morale test?

A. All morale rolls are treated as being simultaneous, and so a rout caused by one roll will not affect another stand until after that stand has taken its morale roll.

A. The correct alignment of a unit protecting a flank is beside the unit (not to its rear or offset) and faced at 90 degrees. What it represents is the end unit in line "refusing" its flank, that is bending its line back at an angle. If the stand blocks access to the flank of another stand, that stand's flank is covered *regardless* of the allignment of the stand touching it.So the purpose of the protected flank rule is not to protect the flank of the covered stand, but rather the flank of the stand covering it. Consider the following line of units:

Unit D has an open flank. Unit C's flank is not open because it is physically masked by unit D. The commander wants to cover the flank of his line and so pivots unit D to cover it, as below.

Unit C's flank is still physically masked by the presence of Unit D. Unit D's right flank is not open, however. It is a protected flank, as unit D is actually assumed to be deployed in a bent line. Maybe a better way to think of unit D's deployment would be as follows:

Q. Can stationary infantry that have been prone, stand in the first half of the move and charge home in the second half?

Q. If the infantry unit that has been prone stands up from prone is it stillstationary if it does nothing else?

A. You don't have to have been stationary the previous turn, so long as you are stationary on the turn you go prone.

Q. Crossing a marshy banked stream costs half a move and causes a disorder. Is the half move in addition to any phyiscal distance travelled or instead of? In other words does half a move still remain to reform after crossing if you start at the bank?

A. The half move does not count towards the actual distance moved - so to cross the marchy banked stream - (50%) of movement + the distance moved - even if it is 1" does not allow you to cross the stream without ending the turn in disorder on the far bank This is designed to make crossing those places difficult at best.

Q. Exactly when does a PDR unit lose stationary status? When it changes face? Or only when it actually moves?

A. Any movement will cause a PDR to lose its stationary status. Thus a change of face counts as movement. Actually any momement will cause any unit to lose its stationary status. It's just that a "free" facing change doesn't count as movement while a facing change which requires actual expenditure of movement does.

Q. With respect to calculating morale collapse. The enemy allocate its commbat dice and cause two casualties on one stand. The first hit effectively eliminates the stand. This hit is added to the exhaustion of the division and the division is exhausted. What happens to the additional hit die? Does it count an additional "hit" on the division when determining the chance of a morale collapse, or is it lost?

Q. If you stuff a town base with 4 skirmishers, can they each fire their 1 die out of any face (that is 4 dice in one direction if necessary), or can just a quarter of the firepower of the town's occupants be brought to bear in any 1 direction?

Q. What is the concept behind detaching skirmishers. For example can a brigade that has two strength points break off a one SP skirmisher and still have a one SP brigade stand?

A. It's always been my intent that brigades can either detach 1 skirmisher or break down completely. I'm not sure that that's absolutely necessary - I can see a large leger regiment (mounted on a brigaqde stand) detaching a couple skirmishers - but I would certainly be uncomfortasble with a brigade detaching skirmishers to the point where it was reduced to a single SP. Where to draw the line? At present the black letter rule is 1 SP or all.

Q. When a unit crosses a one counter hill and in the same turn cross the up contour line and the down contour line, does this count as one contour or two for movement penalties?

A. I think that the rule of countours should read two contours in the same direction. My intent here was to model steep slopes, not moving up and down a gentle one.